Biography
Camenisch grew up in Tavanasa and moved toLiterary career
Camenisch writes prose, poetry and plays. In the Anglophone world, he is best known for his novel ''Sez Ner'' (translated under the English title ''The Alp'' by Donal McLaughlin), about life in a modern Alpine village, which was written jointly in two languages - first in German, afterwards re-written by himself in Romansh.Beginnings
While still a student at the Bern School of Arts, Arno Camenisch met his future editor and publisher in unison Urs Engeler at a reading session. They instantly formed a productive bond and teamed up as author and editor. Since ''Sez Ner,'' Arno Camenisch exclusively publishes new prose works via the self-titled Engeler-Verlag.The "Alpine Trilogy"
''Sez Ner (The Alp),'' 2009
With German and Romansh printed side to side, Sez Ner portrays the life of a group of men and their daily chores on an Alp. Characters are only represented by their profession and do not have proper nouns. Critics widely recognized ''Sez Ner'' as a lively but fictional portrayal of Swiss Alpine life. Camenisch's style of writing especially within ''Sez Ner'' sometimes evokes a feeling of reality being depicted, which Camenisch denies continuously - instead, he insists on his writing as a result of extensive knowledge about the people, landscape and culture he chooses to describe.''Hinter dem Bahnhof (Behind The Station ),'' 2010
''Hinter dem Bahnhof'' (Engl. title ''Behind The Station'' ) is the second prose work in the Grisons Trilogy. With a highly stylized Swiss German Grisons dialect, the narrator, a child of pre-school age, tells about his life with parents, grandparents and his brother in a micro-village in Grisons. Camenisch has confessed that various elements of the story are autobiographic, but is rather taciturn about which ones they are. Initially, Camenisch's intent was not even to publish the book, instead, he just told his editor Urs Engeler about a prose fragment that he had written about his childhood, but just for himself. Engeler then convinced Camenisch to show him what he had written down. Eventually, they decided to make the text his second novel to be published by Engeler. The universal imagery of childhood contributes to a large part to the novel's popularity with its audience: Though its language clearly roots the story in Switzerland, foreign readers often state a feeling of nostalgia towards their own childhood in other places evoked by reading ''Hinter dem Bahnhof''.''Ustrinkata (Last Last Orders),'' 2012
After two books with interconnected settings had been published, Camenisch decided to round up the portrayal of his region of origin with the play-like novel ''Ustrinkata''. The plot is set around the closing evening of a local pub in a Grisons village. Camenisch has confirmed the closing of his aunt's pub ''Helvezia'' in Tavanasa to have been the initiative inspiration to write his novel. Special about the prose in this publication is its rule of dialogue that gives way to characterizing the novel rather than as a play for the stage. For ''Ustrinkata'', Camenisch received the Swiss Literature Award.Other
Camenisch has been a member of the Spoken Word Ensemble ''Bern ist überall until'' 2016.Bibliography
* ''Ernesto ed autras manzegnas'' (2005) * ''Sez Ner'' (2009). ''The Alp'', trans. Donal McLaughlin (Dalkey Archive, 2014) * ''Hinter dem Bahnhof'' (2010). ''Behind the Station'', trans. Donal McLaughlin (Dalkey Archive, 2014) * ''Ustrinkata'' (2012). ''Last Last Orders'', trans. Donal McLaughlin (Dalkey Archive, 2016) * ''Las flurs dil di'' (2013) * ''Fred und Franz'' (2013) * ''Nächster Halt Verlangen. Geschichten I'' (2014) * ''Die Kur'' (2015) * ''Die Launen des Tages. Geschichten II'' (2016) * ''Der letzte Schnee'' (2018) * ''Herr Anselm'' (2019) * ''Goldene Jahre'' (2020) * ''Der Schatten über dem Dorf'' (2021) * ''Die Welt'' (2022)Adaptations
''Sez Ner, Ustrinkata, Las flurs dil di, Fred und Franz'' and ''Der letzte Schnee'' have yet been adapted for the stage by different Swiss theaters. A movie adaption for ''Die Kur'' has been announced but has not taken place yet. For ''Sez Ner'', Camenisch has recorded a bilingual audiobook with each three audio discs in German and Romansh. ''Hinter dem Bahnhof'' is available as a German audiobook edition as well. The short story collections ''Nächster Halt Verlangen. Geschichten I'' and ''Die Launen des Tages. Geschichten II'' are also available as audiobooks read by the author himself. Radio Play versions of ''Ustrinkata', Fred und Franz'' and ''Der Letzte Schnee'' have been produced in cooperation with the Swiss Radio and Television (SRF).References
External links
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Camenisch, Arno 1978 births Swiss writers Romansh people Living people People from Biel/Bienne Romansh-language writers German-language writers